Pink Sauce

Controversial author, John Perkins, a man who says he knows because, often, he was there, reveals the real reasons behind the Iraq War (part 1) and what is currently happening in South America (part 2) before answering a few questions (part 3). This was recorded at the Veteran for Peace National Convention in Seattle on 11 August 2006 (lasts about 1hr). And it all rather makes sense... part 1 | part 2 | part 3 This interview by DemocracyNow.org summarises his thesis and gives some background on Perkins in about 10min. John Perkins - Wikipedia

The view from the stage of the Palladium during the technical rehearsal on Sunday 16th, showing the gobo whose artwork I put together. The concert went very well. I am glad to say I made very few mistakes and as usual the next day the back-slapping emails were flying fast on the Chorus' mailing lists. The good news is that, having sold out we will be giving I think £5000 to the Terrence Higgins Trust and they got another £2000 from the raffle and bucket shake organised on the night. For fuller reviews of the show click here , here and here . More pictures available here

The camera I bought in 2002 just before going to Sydney with the Chorus, has died on me. It doesn't switch on any more and remain miserably stuck as if it was on (the zoom in unfolded). This was my first digital camera. It wasn't perfect but it helped me learn a lot. It's ease of use and flexibility not to mentioned the great results I got from simply pressing the button (compared to my previous camera: a cheap and nasty autofocus), really encouraged me to take more pictures and gave me a taste for it. No more pics for me until I can buy a new one... (everybody sigh of relief here) that will take a while :O( Unless some generous Santa gives me a nice new SLR... As if!

For those who don't fancy sitting through two hours of choral music, watching Accentuate the Positive in support of the Terrence Higgins Trust, on 16th December at the Palladium, but would still like to see a bunch of gay guys make a fool of themselves in public for Christmas (and yes that includes moi), a few opportunities present themselves to view parts of the London Gay Men's Chorus in action (and for free, apart from the Barbara Cook gig). World AIDS Day Saturday, December 1 St. Pancras Church, Euston - 12 Noon Barbara Cook and friends Word AIDS Day Concert Sunday, December 2 London Coliseum - 7:30 pm Covent Garden Carols December 13, 18, 20 Covent Garden Piazza - respectively 6.30, 7.30 and 9 pm on the 13th and 5.30, 7, and 8.30 pm on the other two dates. (I won't be there on the 13th) Selfridges Carols December 22 & 23 Oxford Street shop - 12.30, 2.00, 3.30, 5.00 (and 7.30 on Saturday only) first published on 28/11, updated on 10/12

I was going to simply post the picture of a red ribbon to mark the day today. But then a friend of mine told me yesterday about World AIDS Day: "Don’t really have any response to it, I’m afraid. Feel like I’ve done my bit." His former partner is HIV+ My response was:"It's not about response, it's about taking part. The response is expected from governments and society. It's a way to remind them that there is still work to be done I think while remembering "our" dead." More controversially perhaps, and with reference to Armistead Maupin's ideas on Desert Island Discs this morning, the day could also almost be seen as a day of thanksgiving for what the advent of the "gay placgue" did to advance the LGBT cause. AIDS both forced and allowed society to talk about LGBT lives. It made us visible and showed us as caring and grieving people not that dissimilar from members of the norm. The epidemic also had positive repercussions within th...

Last night, I attended the pre-launch event of LGBT History Month 2008. This was the fourth event of this kind and I am pleased and proud to say that I have attended all of them. In 2004, the first ever pre-launch event took place at Tate Modern, the following year, we were at the Met Police's Empress State Building. Last year, the TUC welcomed us at Congress House and this year, we were in the grand surroundings of the hall at the Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand. This was also the event with the most guests, several hundred, I would say. After a few nibbles and drinks, people moved towards the end of the hall to take a seat and listen to the various speakers. After a quick word of welcome by the co-chairs of the Month, Sue Sanders and Paul Patrick, the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC took the stage for a speech where she retraced the legal history of gay rights since 1967, highlighting the work done by Labour in fighting discrimination (read more here ). Th...

The London Gay Men's Chorus debut at the London Palladium on Sunday December the 16th 2007 with a stunning concert raising funds for the Terrence Higgins Trust. Featuring a celebrity host and special guests including West End star Alison Jiear, the evening will be an upbeat and poignant celebration of how people's experience of living with HIV and AIDS has changed. Including songs such as House Of Fun, One Night Only, Je Ne Regrette Rien and Being Alive , the evening will uphold the London Gay Men's Chorus' tradition of entertaining, informing and uplifting. Marking 25 years of the Terrence Higgins Trust, this will be a night to remember. Bring your lovers, families, friends and memories and join us in marking a quarter of a century of support, education, love, loss and life. Accentuate the Positive The London Palladium Argyll Street, London W1 7:30pm Sunday 16th December Box Office: 0870 890 0144 Tickets from £20 Performance will be BSL Interpreted www.lgmc.org.uk

Imagine your are the managing team of a big company and that you find yourself will a little spare dosh. You look around for what you can do with it and suddenly realise that, Richard Branson, the owner of your company is keen to get rid of it because, like its competitors, it is in trouble and is losing money. So you decide to buy Virgin Megastore. And because you have been working there for a while and you obviously know what a bad brand it is, that people don't like and don't recognise very well, you decide to rebrand the chain of shops with a new snazzy name that you are sure will work wonderfully: Zavvi ... I am speechless!

Salut Zefrog, I came across your blog and wondered if you'd be interested in a website I've set up called MenuLover.co.uk . I'm collecting menus for local takeaway restaurants and posting them on the site so that local people can easily find different sorts of takeaways. If you have a moment to take a look, and if the thought of takeaway food is not anathema to your French sensibilities, I'd really appreciate any comments you have. (The website's just a beta version, but hopefully it gives you a rough idea.) Also, in case you're trying to promote your blog, feel free to list it on Localmouth.com . It's (another) site I've set up which I hope will help people get more involved in their local communities. There are a few South London blogs there already, but I'm pretty sure yours would be the first gay(?) French one ;-) All the best. Cordialement, Matt

Today, I planned I attended an all day event organised by the Southwark Alliance. Or so I thought. The event was billed as their November conference. In fact it turned out to be a consultation exercise on the future of Burgess Park. The vast majority of the 60-odd people attending had no direct involvement with the Park and it seems to me it would have been more efficient to consult users of the Park and local residents. After people had been divided into groups, we were taken for a site visit of an area of the park with the instruction to put ourselves in the boots of a type of user. We walked around the area, we took pictures and registered our impressions of the park. Back to our base, we had to find words to describe the experience. Later on, we had to make a collage with pictures cut out from magazines showing our vision for the Park in 2025. That was more or less what the event was about. Because of our lack of knowledge about the park and the ares, the points we made were and ha...

I am just back from a meeting of the Southwark Anti-Homophobic Forum and I am feeling elated and disappointed at the same time. The meeting was great. Good company and good food were the least of its positive points. Yes, Columba Blango, Executive member for citizenship, equalities and communities (Lib. Dem.), had left mid-meeting during a presentation on domestic violence in the LGBT community but the whole meeting was very positive and in many ways empowering. Simon Hughes , the local MP, had suddenly remembered his (in more ways than one) communihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifty (I have never seen him at any of our events) and was present at the meeting (although not for long), talking about working with us on several local issues and asking for advice on the current Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill and the government's proposals to introduce a new offence of incitement to hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. This was followed by an intervention by members...

Slightly dragged me to Blackheath last night to watch the fireworks. Rather than joining the crowds gathering near where the fireworks were taking place, we decided to stand back a bit and stayed about halfway in the middle of the heath. The view was good. We apparently missed the music though. As for the fireworks, I might be getting blaze but I don't seem to have enjoyed the last few I have seen. Last night's were rather boring. This was mostly due, in my view to a lack of rhythm. There were long periods with little happening and all in all the event was a bit too long. After that we went nearby to the place of one of Slightly's friends who was having drinks. That was quite nice. I got home very late after a bus driver waving at us rather than stopping! and a punch up with police involvement on the bus I finally managed to board. Ah! Deptford!

"Sagging" is becoming increasingly contentious in the US. The fashion trend of wearing jeans sagging low displaying the underwear, favoured mostly by young black men was popularised some years ago by hip hop artists. It is said to originate in American Jails with their ill-fitted uniforms and the lack of belts (for security reasons). Several communities and schools in the US have recently been trying to ban this way of dressing and black organisations have been quick to point out possible racist undertones to these moves. Now the attacks against sagging are coming from a different angle. Texan rapper, Dwayne Brown aka Dooney the Prince, has released a single titled "Put Your Pants Up". When interviewed last week on BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight, Brown explained that sagging is another example of "moral decay". Despite the title of his song, Brown claims not to be trying to tell young people how to dress but simply to educate them on what is for him ...

Sigh

I am just back from the Police Station and the experience there was as dismal as I expected it to be. This was the third time I had set foot in a Police Station. The first time had been to report problems I had had with a friend of my first landlord (I might blog about this someday - I don't seem to already have) and the second time was to report the theft of my wallet on a bus . The theft report had been quite uneventful but during my first visit, I had not been taken seriously (despite the seriousness of what I was reported) and nothing came of it. As I got to the bus stop to start my way home earlier today, I found a battered mobile phone. Being the good Samaritan that my mother taught me to be, I picked the thing up and decided to bring it to the Police. The owner might be glad to get it back. I went to Vauxhall Police Station which is one I know of and close to where I live. When I entered the place I found myself in a small hallway with only two seats and several people alre...

What goes around comes around ! A study of American youths (aged 16 to 29) by The Barna Group shows a declining respect towards Christianity in this age group. It seems that this is at least partly due to the negative attitude of the religious rights (and most established Churches) towards homosexuality. 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers said "anti-homosexual" describes Christianity. Both groups feel that Christians "show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians." They also mention the tendencies of Christian groups to turn homosexuality into a "bigger sin" than anything else while doing little to help young people apply Christian principals to their relation with LGBT friends. 75% of young non-Christians and 50% young Christians also think that Christians are too involved in politics. Read more about the survey here .

It seems that life has made a come-back to the desolate shores of my existence. After the busy past week at the Cycle Show and starting work on the remodeling of the shop, today, I received a phone call from a recent new member of my reading group inviting me, for some incomprehensible reason, to share the bonanza of free tickets to the musical Hairspray at the Shaftesbury. The previews opened on the 11th and the show opens properly on 30th. The guy is an actor and a friend of his, who seems to be managing the Front of House team (or something like that) had lined up for him two circles tickets complete with complementary Champagne and 3 track CD sampler of the original Broadway recording (the tracks can be downloaded here ). The show is based on John Waters ' 1988 film and stars Michael Ball (in Divine 's role of Edna Turnblad), Mel Smith (as Edna's husband), Leanne Jones (as their daughter, Tracy) and Ben James-Ellis (as Tracy's love interest). While Michael Ball is...

As I think I mentioned earlier, I am currently attending the London Cycle Show at Earls Court. For those really desperate to know what I am up to, they can visit the Witcomb Cycles blog , where I blog each day about what has been happening on the stand. For those less interested, let me just say that it is going very very well indeed; far beyond our expectations in fact, and that I am rather tired but also quite excited.

Sculpture by Louise Bourgeois. It was part of the first Unilever Series in the Turbine Hall of the Tate Modern in May 2000 and is made of bronze, stainless steel and marble and measures nine meters high and wide. "The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver," the 95-year-old Bourgeois said in a statement as quoted by Reuters. This is a taster for an exhibition of 200 works by Bourgeois that will open on October 10 and run to January 20, 2008.

To mark the month, LGBT History Month UK have put together resource pages on their website. These include some information about prominent black LGBT people and black LGBT organisations. Their blog will also feature specific posts throughout the month. You can view these pages by clicking here or on the image above.

I don't normally remember my dreams. It's probably just as well. The other day however, I remembered the appearance in my slumbering psyche of a yellow beetle flying towards me in my room. Nothing else. A day or two before that Slightly, who into all these things, told me about two dreams that two members of his family had had about him. Both were apparently good omens predicting financial success. When I first remembered the nightly insect the morning after, I mistakenly remembered it as a scarab. My friend Google quickly confirmed the hunch I had that scarabs meant good luck in ancient Egypt. Slightly confirmed to me that dreams of any yellow (golden) insect (apart from spiders, who are not insects anyway) announce a windfall. Perhaps the insect was simply announcing the arrival of the cheque I mentioned in my previous post but I want to believe (and why not), that, coupled with Slightly's own dreams, this has to do with the new venture we are starting together. On 14th O...

A couple of weeks ago, I received a message through my Flickr account. It was about the picture above. I'm from a design company in Covent Garden and would like to use the shot for a brochure for LU. We would of course pay you, but would need a higher resolution image if you have one. I took the picture around 5.30 one morning in April this year. I am not sure why I was up so early and looking out of the window that day, but the fact is that I did, saw this lovely sight and snapped it. The brochure is internal to London Underground but I should get a copy anyway. Today I received a cheque for £200 in payment for the use of the picture. That's my now aging digital camera having almost paid for itself (It cost me £300 in 2002). Funnily enough, a few days later, I received another message by the same channel and about the same picture, although from an American fondery, this time. I recently just finished developing a series of typefaces based on the London Underground typeface an...

The DfES is in the process of consulting the public for the introduction of a bill on barring people from working with children and vulnerable adults. They are considering a series of offences which would automatically disqualify an individual without a chance of appeal. Among these offences it is surprising to find references to the Sexual Offences Act 1956, notably with the offences of buggery and indecency between men. Both these offences, which were aimed directly at gay men, have now been repealed from the statute books and should therefore not be considered any more. This would means that some people (older gay men) who might have been convicted of these offences several decades ago would be disqualified while other people who would not have been convicted for the same acts (because no longer an offence) would not be rejected. There is also an implicit suggestion that gay men are not suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These elements of the consultation seems to...

I had a rather busy day today; something I am certainly not used to any more. I rolled out of bed at 8, had a quick shower and put a suit on, then walked round the block to the Imperial War Museum . I was there as chair of the LGBT Network to attend the Peace Breakfast organised by the Southwark Multi-faith Forum and the Volunteers Centres Southwark to mark the anniversary of 9/11. There were of gay and lesbian people with me and we spread ourselves as much as we could. We didn't really know how we would be received as we had to more or less beg for an open invite to the event. It all went very well and we hope that this is the start of something important. The Deputy Borough Commander, the Mayor and the rabbi from the South London Liberal Synagogue spoke, awards were given, we ate and had facilitated "discussions". All very civilised and friendly. What was perhaps the most surprising was the the rabbi, during his speech mentioned his involvement with Jews Against the Cl...

The following comment was left on the picture above on my flickr account: Hi, Zefrog. I salute your promptness in getting these photos up and running. This is a great shot, and so I have borrowed it for a piece on www.londonist.com Thanks. You can read the article in question here .

This morning I put my legs on and got myself out of the house for a short walk up the road to Parliament Square where a new statue of Nelson Mandela was being unveiled. The ceremony was scheduled for 11am but the blog on which I found this information suggested to get there at about 10. This is what I did and was grateful for it as people were already waiting when I got there. While a short film on Mandela's life was shown on the giant screens, we watched as guests arrived and were directed to their seats by GLA staff (I recognised the Mayor's LGBT advisor, on the breach). Most faces were unknown to me though I spotted (Dr) Brian May (former Queen), Darren Johnson (leader of the Green Party at teh GLA), David Cameron, John Prescott and Peter Hain. There was even a representative of the BME LGBT community which was a nice touch. Jesse Jackson was there too but he arrived late. The ceremony had already started. He was quick however once it was finished to step up to the stat...

Just when I said I had nothing to blog about, I had a look at the traffic counter for this blog (to be found at the bottom of the sidebar) and realised that a picture I uploaded in February 2006 is ranking second (out of just under 2M) in the Google Images search for Islam . I am getting quite a few hits from there. This was at the time of the controversy surrounding the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a Swedish paper. I had used the pic to illustrate one of my posts on the subject (the others can be found here , here and here ). So far, I haven't received any comment or reaction but I am fully expecting some nutter to take offense of my western liberal anti-religious views on the subject. This extra traffic will probably not even bring me any extra readers since, just like the other high ranking pic on this blog (number 8 out of about 4.5M), it probably won't be the favorite search term for people who would be interested by the content of this blog.

After several weeks without a computer, I am indeed finally back online and I know I should be blogging like there is no tomorrow. However, and please note that I am not moaning or being depressed (or even asking for help) about it, my life is currently a complete blank. I have no social interaction to speak of with any one and I spend most of my weeks at home. I went out only three times this week. Once to Tesco for my food shopping, a second time was a lovely outing of the Southwark LGBT Network at the National Portrait Gallery for a queer view of a few of their paintings. Finally, yesterday, I had a meeting with my business partners. The rest of the time is more or less a blur of nothingness. If you are really missing reading what I can come up with (although you won't find opinion pieces), you can find me on the LGBT History Month blog of which I am the editor. The blog provides information and events details of events linked to LGBT History. I hope you find it interesting.

After 8 weeks of customer service comedy, phone calls and toing and froing of all kinds, I received on Saturday a voucher to replace my laptop which had been deemed irreparable after having been lost and found (more on this later). So today, I went to PC World on the Old Kent Road and gave myself over to the dark side. TADDAAAAH! A Macbook! In the first few weeks of my troubles, I had been lent a laptop running Vista and I have to say I was not impressed. What I like(d) about PC's is that you can fiddle. You can tweak things, go behind the screen and adapt. To an extent. Mac on the other hand runs smoothly, is all about integration and in many ways is for people who are more interested in results than in learning how to use a computer. Vista, in my few, unfortunately and unhappily sits on the fence and ends up to be more frustrating than anything else. This herralds the end of the fiddly PC as I liked it. Mac is also the machine of choice for people working in the creative industry...

About a month ago, my laptop decided to die on me. It just refused to start up. I sent it to the repair people via courier. Repairs were going to take two weeks (and that was only changing the CD player (which was also not working) so that I could restore the whole: ie do the work myself! I still haven't received my laptop back although apparently the repairs have been made. The laptop has apparently been lost by Parceline the courier company (who are not very good: they have apparently been several times but can't be bothered to use my mobile phone. Slightly has had problem with them with the reasons why his stuff wasn't delivered changing at each new phone call). I am not really bothered about the laptop. It was getting oldish (3 years) and all my data is backed up. Getting a new one seems like a good thing after all. During all that time, the nice people at LGBT History Month (I am their webmaster, now remember) have lent me a laptop and by the same token, life! Today ho...

Let loose and on the run! Fresh from the Scotland leg of the Bad Boys Tour, the London Gay Men's Chorus is back in London; brace yourselves for one of the sexiest, sassiest celebrations of villainy ever seen on stage. Including music from James Bond, Chicago , Carmen Jones and Jerry Springer - The Opera , and songs by Queen, The Eagles and Wham, everybody knows Bad Boys get the good tunes and this show has them all. It’s about low lives lived on the wrong side of the tracks. It’s about going off the rails. From the back of the classroom to the depths of the underworld, it’s one hell of a ride. Tickets are going fast! Concert includes: Queen: We will Rock You, Don't Stop me Now, Bohemian Rhapsody Wham: Bad Boys Carmina Burana: O Fortuna The Eagles: Desperado Jerry Springer: The Opera " I Just Wanna Dance " Tom Lehrer: Machismo Tango Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax Bad Boys Cadogan Hall 5 Sloane Terrace London SW1X 9DQ July 20 and July 21 2007 - 7:30pm Box Office: 0...

A friend of mine with an interest (bordering on the mania) in the history of theatres and cinemas regularly asks me, usually after imparting some obscure point of trivia, if I think he is mad. I don't think he is particularly. People with a passion, especially the kind of passion that doesn't hurt anyone, are usually interesting and for me admirable, since my enthusiasm is a rather lethargic beast. After tonight, I think I might have to become the one asking the other whether I am mad. The shop on the ground floor of the house I have been living in for about 4 years now has recently changed owners. For about a month, there has been some extensive works in the shop and tonight the fascia and signage of the old shop were taken down and unceremoneously dumped. Just after midnight, to be sure that all workers were gone, I sneeked out and from the pile of unwanted plastic retrieved one of the panels that used to hang perpendicularly from the first floor outside wall of house. It see...

Gloria Gaynor is currently in the uk for a series of shows. This morning she was interviewed by Radio4's Woman's Hour. The singer talked about her youth, her career, about some of her most famous songs, several of which have become gay anthems. She also talked about her becoming a born again Christian. Finally the interviewer asked her about her status as a gay icon. She said she was really pleased with this and that saw it as an opportunity to lead her fans towards Christ. The interviewer then asked several times if there might be a contradiction between her faith and her having a gay fan base, if she considered homosexuality as a sin. Gaynor each time refused to answer the question directly. She only said that she is leading her fans to Christ and what he has to offer to them. The interview can be listened to for a limited period of time here . More details here .

Serendipity is like a benevolent fairy godmother for many a gay man looking for his roots. The fact that our history as a group has been so carefully hidden and pushed into the proverbial closet for so long makes any new discovery like a victory, even if that very discovery has been and will be made over and over by fellow solitary travellers. I had such moment of serendipity earlier this week, itself the result of another such moment for someone else. A Friend of mine with an interest in theatre and cinema brought my attention to a BBC Radio 2 which had delivered to him more than the original unpromising expected few comments about a certain film. The programme, about the evolution of the representation of sexual moors in British cinema, included some un-trailed remarks about a few moments of cinematographic LGBT history which my friend thought worth sharing. The programme of course mentioned the well known film Victim which was released in 1961. The film was quite a risky career mov...

Despite the recent discovery of two bombs in the West End on Friday and the unwelcoming weather, the streets of London got invaded by hords of festive homosexuals today. Neither above mentioned circumstances seem to have managed to deter people from making a stand. The heavens truely opened just before the Parade got underway at 1pm but then the skies became more clement and the rest of the afternoon went ok in that respect. This year for the first time since my first Pride (in 2003), I wasn't stewarding the parade but simply took part in the fun. I was walking with the Southwark LGBT Network (of which I am the Chair, as some may remember). Last year (like the two previous years) the Network had a float. I was a "wheel Stewart" for said float. This year we had decided to go for something a little less honerous (both financally and in terms of organisation) and had simply hired 4 bug bugs (with "drivers") and had invited people to come with their wheels (bicy...

Slightly : is not aging well:

Some trawling of the net I was doing earlier today for research purposes took me to the website of the venerable Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce . I had a bit of a schock there as I recognised bank in the middle of the front page a picture I took a few months back. This was in Trafalgar Square for an event called Eat London where community groups had recreated a map of London with food. I took the picture on the steps of the square as a good illustration of London's diverse population. I am rather chuffed, I must say. Below you can view the original pic and the credit on the RSA website:

by Eliot Weinberger , London Review of Books , Vol. 27 No. 3, 3 February 2005 A prose poem drawing on reports, newspapers, official utterances and eye-witness accounts to paint a terrifying picture of the war in Iraq. In 1992, a year after the first Gulf War, I heard Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, say that the US had been wise not to invade Baghdad and get ‘bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq’. I heard him say: ‘The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is: not that damned many.’ In February 2001, I heard Colin Powell say that Saddam Hussein ‘has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.’ That same month, I heard that a CIA report stated: ‘We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programmes.’ ...

And so ends this tiny glimpse into my psyche of 2002. I hope you enjoyed it or at least found it of interest. Most of the people you have met in those few pages are now no longer part of my life. MPB, the polish woman, I decided to let go after a while when I realised that the relationship was too strongly tipping to her advantage for my liking. I perhaps did not do that at the best time for her, and I am slightly ashamed of that timing but I had to be done. Right after my trip to Paris, PFM decided to cut all communication with me, without explanation. This did not come as too much of a surprise as I had seen her do the same thing to other people in the past. My guess is that she got back with K. and that my insistance, when I saw her in Paris, that it was probably best for her that the relationship should have stopped did not endear me too much. I don't know. MFS gave up on my after a while when she saw she could not interest me in her buddhist practice. She also found herself a ...

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 02 April 2002 A long and busy week-end that was. It was Easter and for that reason the week-end comprised two Bank Holidays. I went for my run on Friday morning and although I ran for an hour I did not feel as tired as the previous times and felt it was altogether easier than usual. The training seems to be starting to have an effect at last. In the afternoon I went to MPB’s in Twickenham to help her rearrange the furniture in her room. In the evening, ...

Following yesterday's post , here is more (official) information about the event (although we are not officially doing the Saturday gig. It looks like individuals will be invited to come along if they want): Six London Choirs perform on a converted barge as it sails from Tower Bridge up the Thames to the Royal Festival Hall, culminating in a grand choral piece composed by Orlando Gough (The Shout) and performed together with a 150 strong choir from Southbank Centre’s Voicelab led by Mary King and Matthew Morley. Choirs: British Gospel Arts, Velvet Fist, London Bulgarian Choir, London Gay Men’s Chorus, Raise the Roof, Maspindzeli, Voicelab Surge. Soloists: The Shout - Melanie Pappenheim, Carol Grimes, Manickam Yogeswaran and Jeremy Birchall; Megaphonistas: Philip Canner, Matt Broadbent, Luke Bateman, Mark Wright, Ayozi, Ciara Burrows, Tom Giles, Eliza Wren-Payne. This Southbank Centre commission of Singing River is based upon an original commission by Marie Zimmermann for Theatre De...

Some background to what follows can be found here . Other installments are here . I started this as a way to train at touch typing (hence the title) which I have finally taken up learning more or less seriously. At first I was typing what nonsense came across my mind and deleted it once I had finished. Gradually, it just turned into a diary relating the events (not very numerous) of my life. This has also the advantage of keeping me relatively busy at work when I have nothing else to do which seem to happen rather frequently these days. 25 March 2002 The previous weekend had seen me going to the Box with J. on Friday night. I was on my way out when B. proposed that I took her out for a drink as he was going to work and she was feeling a bit down. It took us a long time to get there as we had troubles finding a space to park the car. Once there we managed to find a table and started to chat while checking out the boys. At some point a guy literally dumped himself on the chair next to me...